April 08, 2019
Zac Wallace a modern day warrior
WILLIE JACKSON TRIBUTE TO ANZAC WALLACE CLICK HERE
He seemed larger than life on screen, but that's because he lived life large.
That's the last word on actor, unionist, social worker and bulldozer driver Anzac Wallace, who died this morning of cancer aged 73.
MP Willie Jackson met Zac Wallace almost 40 years ago when he was leading Labourers' Union members locked out of work on the Māngere Bridge.
He came with a reputation from his time in the notorious D Block at Pāremoremo Prison, but once released he turned his energy and talents to helping people.
After a spell as a union organiser he worked on the mātua whāngai kaupapa helping young people, and convinced the Social Welfare Department to hand over a defunct facility for what has become Ngā Whare Waatea Marae.
Mr Jackson says Wallace's wider fame came when Merata Mita, who had co-directed a film about the Māngere Bridge lock out, cast him in Geoff Murphy's Land Wars movie Utu opposite Bruno Lawrence.
"Zac had never acted before and all of a sudden he was this natural actor in a movie, he took to it so smoothly. I remember talking with Merata about it and she said he made the transition so easily. In some ways he was playing the wild Māori warrior but in many ways he was playing the modern day Zac Wallace, the role fitted so well," he says.
Anzac Wallace returned from Australia shortly after the 30-year rerelease of Utu in 2013, and became an inspiring advocate for Māori justice reform, working for the Manukau Urban Māori Authority's Out of Gate programme for released prisoners.
He is survived by his wife Deidre Nehua.
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